Garratt was born in London on 8 June 1864; and died Richmond, Surrey,
on 25 September 1913. He was apprenticed at Bow works, NLR, from 1879 to
1882 under J.C. Park. He then moved to Doxford's marine engineering works
in Sunderland. After acting as inspector for Sir Charles Douglas Fox and
Sir Alexander Rendel he went to the Central Argentine Railway in 1889, becoming
locomotive superintendent in 1892. From 1900 he worked on the Cuban Central,
Lagos Government, Lima (Peru), and New South Wales Government Railways, returning
to Britain in 1906. According to Rutherford
(BackTrack, 12, 387) his ideas for articulated locomotives
were rejected by Kitsons. On 21 March 1910 Garrattt had written to F.G. Wright
(Churchward's key assistant, proposing a 2-4-2-2-4-2. After inspecting
rail-mounted artillery for the NSW Government he visited Beyer, Peacock &
Co, Manchester, to discuss a method of mounting heavy artillery on railway
bogies. One characteristic which is missing from Rolt's account (below) but
is clearly identified in the R.L.
Hill's Newcomen Society paper is that Garratt was also an artist.

Rolt is highly illuminating
in an unexpected source (Hunset hundred): The highlight of Edgar Alcock's
stay at Beyer Peacock's was the appearance on the scene of H.W. Garratt and
the birth of the Beyer-Garratt articulated locomotive. Garratt came to Beyer's
before he registered his patent for this locomotive and shortly before
H.A. Hoy died suddenly in 1908, to be succeeded
as general manager by Rogerson. What followed is best told in Edgar Alcock's
own words. It is a story of great interest, both as a first-hand piece of
locomotive history and for the light it throws on the personality of the
narrator.

'Garratt brought his original idea of the articulated locomotive to
Hoy, who thought there was something in it.
Therefore Hoy turned the idea over to Rogerson to examine and develop a little,
but he instructed me to keep closely in touch with Garratt in the matter
in order that the latter might have whatever service and assistance he
wanted.

'When Garratt first came along he brought only the bare idea, really
just a rough sort of sketch. He had seen a long bogie wagon go over reverse
curves in a yard and wondered whether a locomotive could not be built on
the same principle.

'Garratt was a tall, bearded man, and he was not always strictly addicted
to temperance. He did not come in every day while his design was being worked
out, but only for two or three hours a day twice or thrice a week. Nevertheless,
works and drawing office combined to get the idea into a workman like shape;
and considering the difficulties under which we had to work the first two
orders turned out quite successfully - particularly when one remembers the
physical configuration of the two lines involved. The first two types built
were for the Tasmanian Government Railways and the Darjeeling Himalayan
Railway.

'When we in the Gorton works were in difficulties over the spherical
pipe joint in these first Garratt locomotives we tried one thing after another
without being able to ensure anything like complete steam tightness. Then
I turned up my engineering index and found that something about spherical
steam joints had been described years before in connection with one of the
locomotives built for the Festiniog Railway in North Wales. I looked up the
description and studied it. Then two of us went down to the railway to see
the Festiniog locomotives actually at work, and when we came back we were
able to build up a joint which was successful and formed the basis of all
the future improvements which have been made until the present day.

'At that time the late Sam Jackson was a young draughtsman. He was
on the design and estimating side of the drawing office, and among his regular
jobs was an attendance at shop weighing to check up the weights and have
such items as the boilers weighed and the centre of gravity found by slinging.
He was a forward young man at that time, very keen on his job, and always
wanting extra things done which held up the work; therefore our passages
of arms were not infrequent. Jackson stayed with Beyer's until the end of
his life. He developed rapidly and fully, and in his later years became what
is freely admitted to be the best locomotive designer in the industry.

'In fact the Beyer-Garratt articulated locomotive - as it is known
today - is really the production of Jackson much more
than it is the child of Garratt. The early development was slow and Garratt,
who died during the First World War, did not make very much money out of
the royalties, though his widow was amply recompensed in the years after
1918 by the increasing number of orders at that time.

This, then, at first hand, is the story of the development of the
most successful of all articulated steam locomotive designs; a story in which
that little engineering 'commonplace book' which Edgar Alcock had had the
good sense to keep in his 'teens played an important part. In any articulated
locomotive the flexible steam joints present the knottiest problem to the
designer and the fact that the Garratt joint was developed from that of the
earlier Fairlie articulated locomotive is of con siderable interest. It is
also of interest to recall that at the time Edgar Alcock was just beginning
his work on the development of the Garratt at Beyer's, the Hunslet Engine
Company were building the Fairlie locomotive Gowrie at Leeds.

Garratt. was elected MIME in 1902.

Westwood noted that Garratt died
in 1913, not living long enough to see the inter-war popularity of his invention,
the Garratt articulated locomotive. This locomotive had two engine units,
between which the boiler was fitted by means of a pivot at each end. The
Garratt locomotive was especially popular in Africa, giving a high power
output with its weight spread over a very long wheel-base; the wheelbase,
being flexible, was no obstacle to fast running on curved track.

Papers

Contributions to discussion sessions

Fry, Lawford H.
Modern locomotive practice in Europe and America.
Trans. Instn Loco. Engrs., 1913,
3, 41-58. Disc.: 59-73. (Paper No. 16)Garratt (59-60) spoke about his own design and cited the advantage
of being able to fit driving wheels of any size. The behaviour of the design
on curves was superior to that of the Fairlie and Mallet. He noted the work
of Garratt locomtives on the Tasmanian railways and on the Darjeeling Himalayan
Railway.

13,937 An Improvement in the Expansion Links of the Valve Gear
of Locomotive and
other Steam Engines. 14 Nov. 1885.reversing mechanism8682Improvements in or connected with the sand boxes of
locomotives.25 April 1899.To keep sand dry20123/1901 An improved egg-opener.Applied 8 October 1901.
Published 10 July 1902.verified Espacenet17,165Improvements in and relating
to locomotive engines. 26 July 1907 (published 11 June
1908).The key patent for articulated locomotive: term extended 4½
years May 1923. 26 July 1923, 26 January 1928.5851 Improvements in means for preventing radiation and loss of
heat or transmission of heat from or to steam pipes, tubes, cylinders, and
the like. 11 March 1909.19,338/1911 Improvements in and relating to locomotive engines.Applied 30 August 1911. Published 29 August 1912.verified Espacenet6217 Form of burner for oil, liquid fuel, or gas. 12 March
1912.6697Internal combustion, oil or gas driven locomotives. 18
March 1912.3689 Spark-arrester for locomotive and other engines. 12
February 1913.

Note: There are many further patents for the Garratt locomotive which are
held in the name of Whitelegg and Beyer
Peacock.

Died 7 June 1943. Initially trained as a premium apprentice at Crewe
under Webb between 1896 and 1900. He then became a pupil at Beyer Peacock
for three years. During this period he studied at evening classes in Stockport
Technical School where he obtained several prizes..
Rutherford Backtrack 1998,
12, 387- actually page 389). Was Assistant Works Manager by 1913,
Works Manager from 1918 to 1924, and Chief Designer and Works Manager from
1925. J. Instn Loco. Engrs (1943, 33, 237-8) obituary noted
that he was responsible for the Ljungström turbine condensing locomotive
which was manufactured at Gorton and tested on the LMS. Rutherford subsequently
(Backtrack, 2007, 21, 437
(p. 442) suggests may have been related to John
Nicholson Jackson of Crewe..Patent
376,032 Improvements in fuel bunkers for the steam generators of locomotives
and other engines and plant with Beyer Peacock. Published 7 July 1932.
Applied 20 July 1931
Rotary bunker

Born in South Africa. Apprenticed Natal Government Railways. Commissioned
in South African Engineer Corps. Visited USA and Canada in 1919. Joined Beyer
Peacock in 1923. Locomotive Salesman for Garratt type. Sales Director from
1945. Died on 5 March 1959, aged 69. Obit: J. Instn Loco Engrs., 1958,
48, 622-3.

W. Cyril WiIliams, F.R.G.S., A.M.Inst.C.E. M.I.Mech.E., M.I.Loco.E.,
M.lnst.T., and Past President of The Institution of Locomotive Engineers,
retired on 30th April from the Executive position of Sales Director with
the firm of Beyer Peacock & Co. Ltd., although his services are retained
as a Director of the company. He commenced his railway work in 1906 with
an apprenticeship to the Natal Government Railways where his training, apart
from the general workshop course. included running shed, signal department,
footplate and drawing office experience. He attended the Durban Technical
Institute and obtained the Abe Bailey Scholarship in 1909, the James Brown
Exhibition in 1910 and the Institute Scholarship in 1913. For a short period
in 1912 he was a lecturer at the Institute. In 1913 Mr. Williams was appointed
a junior engineer to the Chief Superintendent Motive Power at Johannesburg.
During the first World War he was commissioned in the South African Engineer
Corps and served throughout the campaign in German South West Africa with
the rank of Captain in the Railway Regiment. During this time he was locomotive
foreman at Usakos and later held the rank of Assistant Superintendent
(Mechanical). Following the campaign in Sonth West Africa, he was posted
to France in the Royal Engineers, being promoted in the field to Army Locomotive
Superintendent. Mr. Williams is one of the most widely travelled railway
men and is renowned for his encyclopaedic knowledge of railways in all parts
of the world. He went to the United States and Canada in 1919 on behalf of
the South African Railways where he was responsible for the inspection of
locomotives. wagons and other railway equipment. After one year he returned
to London where he acted for a short time as Advisory Engineer to the South
African Railways. eventually returning to South Africa on the staff of the-
Assistant General Manager in Durban. Up to 1923 Mr. Williams was largely
engaged on special engineering test duties, in particular with locomotive
performance, and he was associated with the early tests of the Garratt
articulated locomotive. In 1923 he joined the firm of Beyer Peacock &
Co. Ltd., and opened their London Office as London Manager. As an enthusiastic
advocate of the Beyer-Garratt he has taken a large part in its successful
development and use by many railways throughout the world. He was subsequently
designated Sales Director of the company and in I945 was elected to the Board.
During WW2 his wide experience and knowledge of overseas railways was freely
drawn upon by the War Office and the Ministry of Supply, and he actively
participated in the work of his Company on important armaments and locomotive
production. During the past thirty-one years he has travelled on railways
in all parts of the world, and has been a great and popular Ambassador for
Britain, and British locomotives. He has made many contributions to the technical
press and .in papers read before the Institution of Locomotive Engineers;
his Presidential address was reported in our 1950 volume, page 15·
from Loco. Mag., 1954,
60, 76.